Bullpen Blows (Again), Update on Dye, and Thank God the Twins Lost

That ugly taste in your mouth is the unsavory taste of bad bullpen, with maybe a dash of no offense. As noted yesterday, the Rangers can hit but their pitching leaves so much to be desired, and they even had to scratch their starter only a few hours before the game! Hello, Scott Feldman! In typical Sox fashion, when they're bad, they're not just bad, they're frustratingly bad. Javier Vazquez finally busted out of his slump and of course, the Sox fail to supply him with any run support. Vazquez pitched 7 innings and only allowed 3 runs on 4 hits, usually good enough stats when your going head-to-head with the worst pitching staff in the American League, but Feldman and a reliever trio of Frank Francisco, Eddie Guardado, and Jamey Wright held the Sox to a lone run on 5 hits.

The White Sox bullpen looks more and more human every day. Boone Logan allowed 3 runs in an inning of work; a 2-run homer by Hank Blalock in the 8th and then was responsible for Chris Davis when he scored on a sacrifice fly in the 9th.

B-R.com Box Score & Play-by-Play Tribune recap Associated Press recap MLB.com wrap Soxmachine.com recap

Elsewhere in the Central, the Sox maintain their slim division lead over Minnesota, thanks to a 12-4 drubbing at the hands of the Yankees. Detroit is routing Kansas City, 19-0 right now with an inning and a half left to play. If the Royals pull off one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history, I'll let you know, but otherwise, the Tigers will again be a game over .500 and pull to 5½ games of the White Sox. Cleveland is in Los Angeles and are knotted with the Angels at 1 going into the 4th.

You can expect to see Mark Buehrle start tomorrow night despite the fact that his normal spot in the rotation is Wednesday. Buehrle will be back in Missouri to attend his grandfather's funeral, and according to the official site, neither he nor the Sox were interested in skipping a start. So he goes tomorrow on three days rest and Clayton Richard will make his MLB debut Wednesday against Texas.

Mark hasn't started on three days rest since August 15, 2004 when he shut down the Red Sox to the tune of 2 runs allowed over 7 innings of work.

A rundown of the rest of his 3-day rest starts:

1. May 5, 2004 - White Sox beat the Orioles 6-5 in Baltimore. Buehrle didn't pitched particularly well, but luckily for everyone he was facing Sidney Ponson.
2. September 23, 2003 - In his final start of the year, Buehrle loses to the Yankees, 7-0. Mark pitched well, but the Sox bats were shut down by Jose Contreras and the Yankees score 5 runs in the 9th inning against Scott Sullivan, Kelly Wunsch, and Billy Koch.

That would be it, so if we were to use Phil Rogers math, that'd be 2 up and 1 down, and those are odds I can live with.

Despite the fact he looked like he'd need his leg amputated, Jermaine Dye expects to be back as early as tomorrow. I'm no medical specialist, but this is surprising news, and while the Sox do have good backup outfield options, Jermaine's bat is sorely missed. Dewayne Wise, who took his place, went a solid 0-3, but don't feel too bad, only 4 guys actually got a hit today.

Even though everyone and their uncle believes the Sox need to add an arm, Kenny Williams says the moves may not be coming. You can't blame him, the blue chips this trading season were CC Sabathia, who the Indians were not going to trade within their division anyway, and Rich Harden, a walking injury risk. Joe Blanton is a nice consolation prize for Philadelphia, but there's no way the Sox could have matched the offer the Phillies made to acquire Blanton.

Now, as I said earlier, there's no attractive starting pitchers that realistically look to be available. A.J. Burnett is the best arm out there but he's as big an injury risk as any pitcher in baseball and the Blue Jays recently said they're not looking to deal him. Whether or not that is true, its unlikely the Sox will be able to come together with the package to outbid the other teams reportedly interested in Burnett, namely the Yankees and Cubs. Freddy Garcia still says he could be available, too, but given the market for pitching, somebody's going to overpay for him in terms of salary and years.